Can you get worse???

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Does anyone know if it's possible for someone's AS to increase in severity as they get older, from fairly mild in childhood to fairly debilitating in adulthood? Or would this signify something else?

I don't think it's static.
For me (having asperger traits) I am no where near as sensitive to stimuli as when I was a child, and I'm no where near as obsessive about certain things. I don't impulsively write roman numerals from 1-5000 and then start over at 1, and I don't draw boxes stacked on top of one another anymore. But, my interests have intensified.

For my sis... she started off more mild and she has now gotten a lot more sensitive and a lot more obsessive.

While for many of us it gets easier as we get older (due to learning how to adapt) I also believe (in my non-medical opinion) that it is possible to regress, but only due to the self-fulfilling aspect of it. By that I mean the tendency to NOT do something that might ordinarily not pose a problem because of the belief that, as an Aspie, it's impossible.

I come across this line of thinking in my mind every day, and I hate it. I'm afraid I'll fall into the trap of not trying anymore, because my problems can be explained by a permanent neurological condition that I have no control over. I'm fighting those impulses, and I'm doing a good job, but the truth is that those thoughts and feelings DO exist, and they have the ability to bring me down if I'm not 100% vigilant.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that the reason I don't wish to talk to certain people is not that I'm Aspie, but that they're jerks, and would be considered so by anybody, AS or not.

I was more sensitive to some things when I was younger though when younger I tried harder to make friends. I seem to crawl out of my shell in my early 20's until about 32 then I crawled into a cave and have been hiding ever since. I'm not sure why if its from the failed friendships and relationships and how some of those people were really cruel and hurt me emotionally. Or if I just became mentally exhausted from working so hard to appear normal. Though I think I wasn't looking so normal when I thought I was. Nowadays I really no longer work to make friends and could care less about being alone most of the time though sometimes I do slow down and get lonely. So I think outwardly I am looking more Aspie these days than ever before. I am also having trouble again with what apparently is dyslexia and I stutter sometimes and can't think of the right words. I'm kinda afraid of becoming a slobbering idiot by the time I hit my senior years.

I think it's possible. When I developed health problems a few years back I noticed that it became harder for me to keep up the "normal" mask...alot more things bother me to a larger degree now than they did before.

It's been a trade-off of sorts...I'm no longer AS compulsive about certain things and routines as I was when I was younger...but my sensitivity issues have increased. Hope that makes sense.

...and what Ticker said...I'm more reclusive now..."once bitten twice shy?"...sort of thing. Dealt with too much crap in the past.

I say yes. Things that didnt bother me as a child/teen now bother me as an adult. I would say I have gotten worse over the past 2 years or so in many regards, but a lot better at the same time. I am constantly evolving, so while I have gotten worse in some ways, I have compensated or improved in others. If I wasn't willing to heal, I would be a wreck at the moment.

Well, perhaps I should elaborate on exactly which traits I feel are worsening as I get older (I'm 28 now).

I am far more asocial now than ever before. I go through periods of reclusivity where I don't leave the house for days and days. I don't talk to anyone on the phone, husband excluded. I have no "real life" friends and most of the time feel no desire for any. Even my online friends can go days or weeks without hearing from me because the stress and effort of interaction, even virtual, is too much for me to face.

My long-term memory is terrible; and my ability to form visual memories and think visually has disappeared altogether. My thinking and memory is now almost 100% aural, with a little "feeling impression" thrown in, too.

My visual-spatial abilities have deteriorated as well. They were always pretty bad, but they just seem to be getting worse and worse. I can't drive because I can't assimilate all the spatial information required to navigate the car safely through traffic. I can't conceptualize abstract units of measure such as inches, feet, metres, miles etc. I have to have a measurement related to something concrete in order to understand what it means.

My ability to focus on more than one task at a time, including "passive" tasks like listening and thinking while trying to do something else, has declined. I get so confused and flustered if my husband starts talking to me while I'm chopping up vegetables for dinner that I have to stop chopping, or tell him to wait until I'm done.

My neat, careful handwriting has gradually turned into a messy scrawl.

My tolerance for listening to or watching subject matter that doesn't interest me has gone down to nearly zero.

There are other things, too, but that will suffice to demonstrate what I'm talking about.
Your thoughts are appreciated.

It's really hard to say if some of these are cause and effect or like Beenthere said "once bitten, twice shy". Or is it a progressing of AS that would naturally occur.

With the handwriting thing I no longer can read a lot of my own handwriting and sometimes I forget how to write a word. But I think that comes from being an adult and the only thing you typically handwrite in adulthood with the advent of the computer is signing your signature to stuff or else filling out medical history sheets at the dr. Since I graduated from college there's been few times I handwrite anything.

Then part of the non-socializing could be that by the time you are my age 37, its darn near impossible to make true friends (I mean the kind you go places with) or find dates because everyone else my age range either is in a relationship, is being raising kids by themselves and can't hang out, or they are busy going to AA meetings or in prison. But then statistics come out that 51% of American women are single so if that's true I think those women are busy being single moms, too old to leave the house (or bed) or have a deeper cave than I do.

Like I have a few friends at work and they said let's go out to a movie sometime. But that sometime never occurs because they are too busy hanging out with their grandkids or siblings' families even. So what I am saying is after a certain age it might even be pointless to worry with making friends because there's no one who has time to hang out with us. Unless you can find another Aspie nearby I guess.

I believe that as I've gotten older, my memory has become drastically worse. I also find it harder to 'control' my mind, that isn't to say that I can't control my actions, but I just can't concentrate on things and I often get unwanted thoughts coming into my head that I can't shake off. My desire to socialise has moved from very little to none, my confidence lowered also. I'm also becoming very intolerant and more impatient in general. Not just intolerant of others, but of myself also.
All that has gotten wore with age and I'm only 18.

im pretty sure its not As getting worse but any other disorders you have, like depression that make it seem that way

I am getting worse.

I can no longer travel or talk to strange people.

My theory is that as I grow older I have more responsibilities. These responsibilities sap my already limited resources. These resources are being redirected to more vital tasks in my life and the energies that once sustained my NT emulator are pretty much depleted.

I don't know what you mean by worse, (well....from what you say, that's pretty specific...) but as you get older (at least as I get older) I have more issues with things I don't want to put up with. That's not getting worse. If you mean something else...well....statistically, people tend to get BETTER....though I'm not talking cure.....

I can't multi-task. Not at all.

I would also suggest that it is not your long term memory, because that's usually pretty fixed, but your short term memory that isn't interacting that well with the long term memory. This is an issue for a doctor. It has something to do either with emotions and tension (which, as we get older, tend to multiply) or it has something to do with your circulation. That can be pretty serious, but it can also be pretty trivial, and totally treatable with very simple means (talk to your doctor). We (my wife and I) have very few friends....and we don't go out seeking them..... in fact, we are very similar to you. We just figure that it's us, and it has been for a long time, so we don't worry.

If you're having severe issues, you probably ought to see someone who knows about such things.

If you're just melting down, or getting more sensory defensive, you're probably not getting worse. If you're getting unexplained headaches, stomach aches, losing time (not remembering large chunks of time (like whole days) then you probably ought to see someone, because that's not autism, and it's not necessary medical, it's entirely something else, and needs to be dealt with professionally.

Hope that helps
btdt

Yes, I think I'm getting worse too. I definitely have more 'AS' days than I used to. I used to put it down to no longer working with NTs so not being able to model their behaviour but even by my own standards I can't even fake NT behaviour these days.

I think the symptomology is dynamic too. thus far I have become generally better at dealing with an NT majority world. . .but at a cost. To deal with that world I have to bend to it in many ways. the bending takes effort. Each time I adjust my schedule, my behaviour, my very being, I take some energy off my budget.

I get very tired. My anger is no better than it was earlier in my life. Each day I feel as though I have fought (not always to victory) a battle.

I do not believe that i have learned to better read anyone. I am better at looking kind of sort of like I do.

I mostly can fit. But I am a mass of war wounds from so many years in society

I can relate to the problems you've mentioned...but like I said in my case though I can't really say how much came from being sick (diagnosed with CFS & Fibro) and how much is age progression.

Memory was a big, big problem at first...a little better now...the more distractions or stress I have the worse I am. Talk to me while I'm chopping something and I'll cut my fingers off...talk to me while I'm on the phone with someone and I forget what I'm saying..multi tasking abbilities have def gotten worse...and they were never quite there to begin with.

I have a hard time judging distance when driving...

...handwriting, I can type or print...my handwriting used to be beautiful, now it's a mess and I often write the wrong letters without meaning to.

Socializing is part advoidance I think with me and part exhaustion...takes more energy than I have some days. I also find I anger alot easier and my patience is less...I have no tolerance for "stupid" some days anymore.